Let's start by stating a fact: If HoMaM is the most liked sibling in the Heroes franchise, then HoMaM 4 is the less liked. With many innovations and gameplay changes (notably diminishing castle types), almost all of the loyal fans met the game with dislike. But is HoMaM 4 really a 'bad' game? Does it really fail? The answer for me is a big, very very big 'no'. The main point of the 4th installment is all about atmosphere. Wether the graphics, the soundtrack, or the story-telling, this game is a complete success. The graphics and the soundtrack fit perfectly well. The music, by the way, is one of the best soundtracks ever created in a game. The campaigns themselves are not super original or extremely interesting, but instead of adding cinematics, you only read them through texts. It's funny since this should have been a negative side, but on the contrary, it adds up to the atmosphere immensely. And the graphics themselves are like a fairy-tale: The whole package creates a time consuming game that will make you beg for another turn. The main problems rise from the innovative ideas: By merging the castles and reducing the creatures, you suddenly loose many strategic options. However, this also prevents scattering units, and this scarcity forces you to make choices. Putting the heroes on the battlefield seems quite realistic, but when a level 30 barbarian kills 3 black dragons in a single turn, you feel as the game was not polished enough. As for the expansions, we can really say that they show how 3DO was struggling. Especially the second expansion, Winds of War, could very well pass off as a DLC. To finish off, I can easily say that HoMaM 4 is one of the best turn-based strategy game with an added flavor of rpg out there. Plus, even if the game could have been more polished, the atmosphere is so good that you'll be spending hours on it. The game does deserve a chance. As for me, I was looking for the expansions for quite some time, and now that I've gotten them, I'll be wasting another 20-30 hours on it.
